"It's in the top five moments of my lifetime" Debra Messing

Joe Biden’s Will & Grace Shout-out Was ‘One of the Proudest Moments’ of Debra Messing’s Life

When Joe Biden let it slip on Sunday's Meet the Press that he's now completely comfortable with gay people marrying each other, he attributed the nation's shift on gay rights to the trailblazing gay-themed sitcom Will & Grace. "I think Will & Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody's ever done so far," Biden told David Gregory. Last night, during a Joyful Heart Foundation gala at Cipriani Wall Street, Debra Messing, one of the show's titular stars, told us how it felt to hear the vice-president say that.

"I think it was one of the proudest moments of my entire life, besides the birth of my son," she told us. "It's in the top five moments of my lifetime. You know, we knew when we were doing Will & Grace that we were doing something important that was having social effect and political effect, but to have the vice-president of the United States come out in support of equal rights and marriage rights for gay and lesbian people, and to say that our show did more than anything else is an incredibly humbling thing to hear and just makes me feel grateful over and over again that I was lucky enough to have been at the right place at the right time with the right people."

20. I remember that show fondly

21. for the audience

but I think the character came out to other characters during the show. However, I may remember this incorrectly. Wasn't there a woman who wanted to be with him, but he had to tell her during the show he was gay?

Whatever the facts, I thought Jodie was a good character and the show much more entertaining than Will and Grace.

that REALLY set off this entire drama -- but then again, that was the point. You think it's an accident that Biden said what he did, and how Obama followed it up?

Not that I'm complaining: Obama has since said that he was planning to say something pro-gay marriage prior to the Democratic convention, but I believe that he realized that doing that would be too little, too late. Now LGBTs and progressives are happy with Obama, and as long as he doesn't "interfere" on the state level, anti-LGBTs and conservatives will be happy enough.

15. "...that I was lucky enough

to have been at the right place at the right time with the right people."

She didn't act deserving, "take a lot of credit" or claim to have "worked so hard" the way some people do.

She recognized that luck and help from others put her in such a wonderful job and she expressed gratitude. That is one of the big differences in a bleeding heart liberal and a pull yourself up by your bootstraps conservative.